The Ultimate Guide to Frieze Week Los Angeles: Fairs, Openings and Parties

For the first time since 2020, L.A.’s art-fair scene is set to flourish once again with the return of Frieze Los Angeles this February. Plus, running concurrently, the Felix art fair is coming back at full capacity (after a smaller outing last summer) and a host of gallery and museum shows are set to open in the city, which will this fall welcome the first L.A. outpost of blue-chip Lisson Gallery and which recently saw the reopening of The Underground Museum (3508 W. Washington Blvd.) after being closed for two years.

CAA agent and collector Thao Nguyen recommends seeing the latter’s show of works by the late painter and museum co-founder Noah Davis. “It’s a beautiful welcome home to see Noah’s works, full of possibility, love and hope, in a space he created for his family, friends and beyond,” says Nguyen.

Read on for a look at the Frieze, Felix and Spring/Break art fairs taking place this coming week as well as a day-by-day guide (Feb. 14 to Feb. 20) to opening receptions, private parties, art talks and more events happening during L.A.’s Frieze Week.

FRIEZE

With a new director, Christine Messineo, and a new location — in a tent adjacent to The Beverly Hilton, replacing the Paramount Studios lot — Frieze Los Angeles returns to the city Feb. 17, opening with an invite-only preview and running through Feb. 20. Its new, larger tent will accommodate more than 100 galleries, up from 70 in previous years. Galleries from 17 countries will be represented.

“There was always a lot of excitement around Los Angeles and a lot of demands to participate, and we are now able to accommodate that,” says Messineo of the fair, which was canceled in 2021 because of the pandemic. In 2020, visitors included Jennifer Lopez, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey Soloway, Jason Statham, Amy Poehler, Chelsea Handler and James Corden. Endeavor has been the majority owner of Frieze since 2016.

“I think people are really ready to come to a physical fair,” adds Messineo, “and there is this sense of community-building that can happen at a fair.” And even the now-waning wave of omicron cases in L.A. has not deterred gallerists, she says. “We have seen a surge in ticket sales, even though we had moments of a COVID high. We have VIPs and museum goods coming from all over the world.”

Returning L.A. galleries include Blum & Poe, The Box, Château Shatto, and Commonwealth and Council. One newcomer to the fair is New York’s Sean Kelly, making its presence felt in L.A. ahead of opening a West Coast satellite gallery later this spring on Highland Avenue. And while L.A.’s Kayne Griffin and mega-gallery Pace will be showing separately at Frieze, the two have announced that they plan to merge later this spring.

Highlights from L.A. galleries showing at Frieze include Chris Burden’s large-format architectural sculpture Dreamer’s Folly 2010 on view at Gagosian‘s booth; new sculptures by Elaine Cameron-Weir presented by Hannah Hoffman Gallery; a new  iteration of Betye Saar’s 1981 Los Angeles public mural, L.A. Energy, shown by Roberts Projects; and a solo presentation of works by Samuel Levi Jones at Vielmetter Los Angeles‘ booth.

Additionally, a section called Focus LA, curated by Amanda Hunt, director of public programs & creative practice at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, will spotlight local galleries that are less than 15 years old, including Baert Gallery, Bel Ami, In Lieu, Parker Gallery and Stanley’s. And artist Tanya Aguiñiga has organized BIPOC Exchange, a special communal space highlighting ten of Los Angeles’ artist-led social-impact initiatives.

“Frieze can be insanely overwhelming if you are not used to it,” says art collector and Pulse Music Group co-CEO Josh Abraham, who recently shared highlights from his private collection with THR. “My advice is to walk the show, ask as many questions as you need, introduce yourself to the galleries and do a couple of laps.”

(Frieze had originally planned for sculpture installations in Beverly Gardens park to accompany the fair, but the concept was scrapped in late January amid pandemic delays.)

9900 Wilshire Blvd., frieze.com (tickets from $227 for the Friday preview; $75 to $95 for weekend general admission); proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test required.

FELIX ART FAIR

The fourth edition of Felix contemporary art fair — co-founded by collector, media entrepreneur and former TV executive Dean Valentine and gallerists Al and Mills Morán — will take place at the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel from Feb. 17 to 20.

Sixty galleries, representing such cities as Los Angeles, London and Berlin, will take over the hotel’s poolside cabana rooms as well as two floors in the hotel’s tower. “We did a summer edition last year with only L.A. galleries around the pool,” says Valentine. “This year is the regular Felix experience.” In past years, Brad Pitt, Max Greenfield, Jon Hamm, Leonardo DiCaprio and Abbi Jacobson have attended Felix.

As for Frieze leaving behind Hollywood for Beverly Hills? “They’ve gone uptown. We’re still where the funk is,” says Valentine.

7000 Hollywood Blvd., felixfair.com (tickets from $75 for a three-day pass to $40-$45 for a day pass); proof of vaccination (including booster) required.

SPRING/BREAK ART FAIR

The Spring/Break art fair’s third L.A. edition, running Feb. 17-20 at Skylight Culver City, is themed “Hearsay: Heresy” and will feature more than 50 exhibitors including Carlton DeWoody, Michael Slenske and Track 16.

Spring/Break will also spotlight a first-time solo show by Search Party, Arrested Development and Being the Ricardos star Alia Shawkat.

“I feel honored and lucky that the first time I get to show in a public space is in my town,” says Shawkat, adding, “A lot of the work was made in quarantine and the last year, so the inspiration comes from a different silence I’ve been able to have with myself; unconscious ideas and themes of touch and the lack thereof.”

Spring/Break was founded in New York in 2012 by artists Ambre Kelly & Andrew Gori.

5880 Adams Blvd., springbreakartshow.com, tickets from $150 for a first-look VIP ticket and full-week pass to $30 for a day pass; proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test required.

GALLERY OPENINGS, EVENTS AND ART TALKS (FEB. 14 TO 20)

Monday, Feb. 14

Opening reception for I Do My Own Stunts, the first show in L.A. by Spazio Amanita gallery. Featuring all-female painters including Karyn Lyons, Kylie Manning and Alaka Shiling, the exhibit is co-curated by Caio Twombly and collector Jack Siebert (the son of Gersh’s Leslie Siebert and Lighthouse Entertainment’s Steven Siebert).

At its recently opened location in Beverly Hills, Sotheby’s Los Angeles (350 N. Camden Dr.) presents a selling exhibition of whimsical works by the late sculptors Francois-Xavier and Claude Lalanne.

Hotel Bel-Air (701 Stone Canyon Rd.), in partnership with Hedges Collection, hosts exhibitions by Andy Warhol and Maripol.

Tuesday, Feb. 15

Outdoor performance by the interdisciplinary arts collective Postcommodity, presenting two sound compositions inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, at Various Small Fires (812 N. Highland Ave.)

Christie’s Los Angeles ( 336 N. Camden Dr.) presents an exhibition featuring works by Cy Twombly, Brice Marden, Louise Fishman and Stanley Whitney at its Beverly Hills space.

Curatorial platform Sized (526 N. Western Ave.) hosts a VIP preview for its new exhibition Vessels in its two-floor space, featuring more than 200 container-like works by Rick Owens Furniture, Pia Camil, Donna Green, Shozo Michikawa, Thomas Barger and more. Plus, Sōgetsu Los Angeles, the West Coast branch of the Tokyo-based Ikebana school, will present a site-specific installation of floral compositions.

The Getty Center, in collaboration with London’s National Gallery, opens its new show Poussin and the Dance, which establishes a dialogue between 17th-century French painter Nicolas Poussin’ dancing pictures and new dance films by Los Angeles-based choreographers.

Opening reception for This must be the place, an exhibition at Various Small Fires gallery (812 N. Highland Ave.) of ten oil paintings by Chicago-based artist Will Gabaldón.

Make Room gallery (5119 Melrose Ave.) opens a show of figural works by the Italian painter and multimedia artist Jacopo Pagin.

Opening of the new show Force Majeure at The Lodge (1024 Western Ave.)

Opening reception for Archipelago Continuum, a solo exhibit of large-scale paintings by Arielle Pytka at Just One Eye (927 N. Sycamore Ave.)

Diane Rosenstein Gallery (831 N. Highland Ave.) opens two shows, Under The Influence, Nigeria-born artist Abe Odedina’s first exhibit in Los Angeles, and Lip, Body and Foot, featuring recent  glazed ceramic vessels by Jay Kvapil.

Autre and König Galerie invite-only party in celebration of artist Ayako Rokkaku at the tommie hotel Hollywood’s rooftop club, Desert 5 Spot (6516 Selma Ave.)

“Thinking Critically about NFTs: Perspectives on Art, Value, and Power,” a moderated conversation at Honor Fraser Gallery (2622 La Cienga Blvd.) with Amir H. Fallah, Nora N. Khan and Kelani Nichole.

Opening of a new exhibition of works by Loïc Raguénès at Clearing in Beverly Hills.

Opening reception at 1301PE (6150 Wilshire Blvd.) for a show of new paintings by Blake Rayne.

The Hole expands from New York with a new location in Los Angeles (844 N. La Brea Ave.) with a group show, New Construction, featuring 20 artists.

Wednesday Feb. 16

Coffee reception at David Kordansky Gallery (5130 W. Edgewood Pl.) to celebrate a new limited-edition book by artists Jonas Wood and Aubrey Mayer documenting Woods’ process of creating his 2021 painting Hanalei Bay, featured in the gallery’s current show Plants and Animals. Collector, writer and producer Maria Arena Bell says the exhibit is a must-see. “These paintings include plants and animals and members of his family portrayed in a way that’s both personal and universal,” says Bell, calling Wood “the Hockney of his time.”

Digital art platform Outland, nonprofit arts group Rhizome, and token-based social community Friends with Benefits are hosting a rooftop party at NeueHouse Hollywood (6121 Sunset Blvd.) that includes a performance by Ryan Clarke and discussions on digital art.

Cultured magazine and Art Production Fund host an invite-only breakfast to celebrate Frieze at Ardor at the West Hollywood Edition hotel.

Opening reception at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (1010 N. Highland Ave.) for its new exhibit of paintings by Olafur Eliasson, your light spectrum and presence.

The Know Contemporary gallery (422 S. Alameda St.), in partnership with online marketplace Artsy, hosts an opening reception for its new show BLACK. The group exhibition — curated by artist Knowledge Benett, the gallery’s founder, and art historian Charles Moore — features work by 10 contemporary Black artists including Kim Dacres, Paul Anthony Smith and Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola.

Pilar Corrias gallery, the Ovitz Family Collection and Alo co-founders Danny Harris and Marco DeGeorge host an invite-only reception presenting the site-specific mural The Last Glance Back by Shara Hughes in Beverly Hills.

Prada’s seventh iteration of its Prada Mode private club will take over Chinese restaurant Genghis Cohen (740 N. Fairfax Ave.) for two nights, featuring an installation by Martine Syms.

UTA Artist Space hosts an afternoon reception for artist Genevieve Gaignard at the West Hollywood Edition hotel.

Cuban-born painter and trained physicist Enrique Martinez Celaya opens a new solo exhibition at UTA Artist Space (403 Foothill Rd., Beverly Hills), which complements works currently also on view at three L.A. arts institutions: The Huntington Library, the USC Fisher Museum of Art and the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library.

Dries Van Noten, Jeffrey Deitch and White Cube collaborate to present the exhibition, Raqib Shaw in Tales from an Urban Garden, at The Little House (451 N. La Cienega Blvd.) with works that draw on his London studio garden.

The California African American Museum (600 State Dr.) opens the show Troy Montes-Michie: Rock of Eye, the artist’s first museum solo exhibition, which includes works informed by the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles. The exhibit is a collaboration between CAAM and the Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought in New Orleans. On the same day, the museum sponsors a conversation between the artist and Black feminist theorist Tina Campt.

The Hammer Museum opens its new exhibit Lifes, which “explores the legacy of the so-called total work of art” and includes contributions from nearly 50 artists, writers and performer, with textual contributions from writers and authors Fahim Amir, Asher Hartman, Rindon Johnson and Adania Shibli.

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Opening at Royale Projects (432 S. Alameda St.) of Robert Cumming: Large Prints, the first solo gallery exhibit in over a decade to feature the artist’s fabricated photography from the 1970s, presented in association with Gallery Luisotti.

Opening of Shell, a show featuring works by Heidi Bucher, Olivia Erlanger and Nicola L., at Del Vaz Projects (259 19th St., Santa Monica).

The exhibition, William Wegman: Up Down Up and Harmonics opens at Marc Selwyn Fine Art (9953 S. Santa Monica Blvd.).

Opening preview of the group show Everyday Rituals at Farago (522 S. Broadway) presented with Tiwa Select.

In-person talk with artist Rachel Harrison and LAXART’s Hamza Walker at Regen Projects, where the former’s show, Caution Kneeling Bus, runs through Feb. 20.

Opening of Ladies’ Lair Lake, an exhibition of works by Trulee Hall, at LAND Los Angeles Nomadic Division (530 N. Western Ave.).

Thursday, Feb. 17

Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles (901 E. 3rd St.) opens two solo shows, Phyllida Barlow, glimpse, the British artist’s first exhibition in Los Angeles, and Gary Simmons, Remembering Tomorrow.

Matthew Marks Los Angeles gallery (7818 Santa Monica Blvd.) opens a show, Model Studies, of new photography by Thomas Demand that spotlights never-before-seen work with the late fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa. The photos were shot in the designer’s archives and focus on his paper cut-out patterns.

Online art destination Platform, backed by David Zwirner, and NeueHouse co-host a NeueCollectors Club conversation with artists Azikiwe Mohammed and Michon Sanders, moderated by Essence Harden, curator at the California African American Museum (CAAM).

Oxy Arts — Occidental College’s public art space dedicated to community organizing and social justice (4757 York Blvd.) — opens EJ Hill: Wherever we will to root, the artist’s first solo institutional exhibition. “Hill embraces the painterly tradition of floral representation, reframing the painting process as the work — in this case the work of care, a therapeutic mechanism for healing, rehabilitation, and even resistance,” per the exhibition statement.

Private cocktail reception for The Future Perfect’s new exhibition Momentary Pause at Casa Perfect Los Angeles, housed in a 1971 Beverly Hills Residence. Works on show include cotton paper lantern sculptures by Bradley L. Bowers and ceramic sculptures and stools by Reinaldo Sanguino. Open house will be Thursday and Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Art platform Advocartsy, specializing in Iranian art, hosts an invite-only preview of its new exhibition space in West Hollywood debuting A Thousand Tales, artist Mobina Nouri’s first solo show in the U.S.

The Hammer Museum presents a free musical performance by Indonesian experimental band Senyawa, comprised of. Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi.

Matthew Marks gallery Los Angeles (1062 N. Orange Grove) opens the show Anne Truitt: White Paintings, featuring seven paintings from the estate of the artist spanning 1973 to 1999.

Over the Influence gallery (833 E. 3rd St.) debuts new shows by Mario Joyce and Chanel Khoury.

Opening reception at Vellum LA, a physical gallery for NFT-backed digital art (7673 Melrose Ave.), for The Decentralized Unicists, a show by AI-generative autonomous artist Botto, curated by Jesse Damiani and Sinziana Velicescu.

Press preview at Mirus Gallery (1922 E. 7th Place.) for the new show, The Awakening, featuring more than 100 pieces by the Austraian graffiti artist Nychos (whose mural of Spongebob Squarepants is at Nickelodeon Animation Studios).

Half Gallery opens a show at a seasonal space in Los Feliz with nine new works by Maud Madsen.

Friday, Feb. 18

Invite-only cocktail party hosted by New York’s Lehmann Maupin and L.A.’s Regen Projects galleries at Ardor restaurant at the West Hollywood Edition hotel.

NeueHouse and The Cultivist host a luncheon for Mexican American artist Lilian Martinez at NeueHouse Hollywood.

Design and architecture magazine Dezeen will hold a discussion titled “Art & NFT” at NeueHouse.

Atra design studio hosts a private poolside brunch in Beachwood Canyon to celebrate Andreas Diaz Andersson’s Hall of Mirrors exhibit, with a musical performance by Marco Paul.

Invite-only conversation at Gagosian Beverly Hills with Percival Everett and Cord Jefferson to celebrate the former’s new book Grand Canyon, Inc., which is paired with a work by Richard Prince and is the latest release in the gallery’s Picture Books series.

Nino Mier Gallery (7327 and 7313 Santa Monica Blvd. and 1107 Greenacre Ave.) debuts new exhibits by Nevin Aladağ, Georg Karl Pfahler, and Llu Susiraja.

Invite-only party hosted by satirical art critic Jerry Gogosian, the alter ego of Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, at the West Hollywood Edition hotel.

Saturday, Feb. 19

Jeffrey Deitch (925 N. Orange Drive) debuts Luncheon on the Grass, a group exhibit of contemporary works made in response to Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe. Says collector and writer/producer Maria Bell, “The artists span a huge group of different ages, genders and backgrounds, and yet they’re all looking at what was at the time a radical painting that broke every rule.” Artists in the show include Cecily Brown, Jeff Koons, Paul McCarthy, Mickalene Thomas and Robert Colescott.

The Horizon Art Foundation and nonprofit art space LAXART are hosting an invite-only conversation and brunch reception featuring artist Harold Mendez, LAXART’s executive director Hamza Walker, LAXART deputy director Catherine Taft and Christopher Y. Lewis, chief artistic director of Horizon. Taking place at Horizon’s new studio in DTLA.

New York’s Danziger Gallery opens its first L.A. outpost at Bergamot Station (2525 Michigan Ave.) with a group photography show that includes works by Ansel Adams, Corinne Vionnet, Andy Warhol and Petra Cortright.

Opening reception for painter Heidi Hahn’s new painting show, Soft Joy, at Kohn Gallery (1227 N. Highland Ave.)

Charlie James Gallery (969 Chung King Rd.) presents the debut solo show, I’m Starting to Forget,  of L.A.-based Danie Cansino, featuring the artist’s chiaroscuro oil paintings and drawings in ball point. The centerpiece of the show is From 3rd to 5th Street, depicting a mother and her kids gathered by an ice cream truck.

Opening reception at Ghebaly Gallery (2245 E. Washington Blvd.) for Sayre Gomez’s new show, Halloween City.

Artist talk at Luis de Jesus (1110 Mateo St.) with Rodrigo Valenzuela and Ken Gonzalez-Day, who each have current exhibits at the gallery.

Opening of a new group exhibition, Aqux, at the nonprofit art space, The Mistake Room (1811 E. 20th St.).

Opening reception at Moskowitz Bayse (743 N. La Brea Ave.) for two new exhibits: The Views, curated by Zoe Fisher, featuring paintings, sculpture and photography depicting windows, and Pushing Rope, new photos and drawings by Rachael Browning.

Night Gallery (2276 E. 16th St.) features new shows by Robert Nava and Daniel T. Gaitor-Lomack.

Opening reception for Anne Appleby: A Hymn for the Mother at Parrasch Heijnen (1326 S. Boyle Ave.)

In a recently opened Los Angeles exhibition space inside a midcentury house (8260 Marmont Ln.), Albertz Benda and Friedman Benda present The Endless Summer, a group show works by Chris Schanck, Daniel Arsham and other artists from the galleries’ rosters.

Artist/illustrator Eric Joyner is the subject of a new show, Somebody World, featuring 24 new works at Corey Helford Gallery (571 S. Anderson St.), which also debuts the new group show, Fab Five, featuring works by Jesús Aguado, Kari Tirrell, Leegan Koo, Sun-Mi, and Yasuhito Kawasaki.

Stanley’s (944 Chung King Rd.) opens a two-person show with Lima, Peru-based painter Isabella Cuglievan and ceramicist Dino Capaldi.

Sunday, Feb. 20

Maddox Gallery hosts an artist talk and exhibition tour with Ruth Pastine, whose works are highlighted in the show Inner Eye, along with pieces by Sali Muller. Both are open to the public. 

LACMA’s newest show, City of Cinema: Paris 1850-1907, brings together paintings, sculpture, posters, print, photography and movies to explore how film emerged.

A version of this story first appeared in the Feb. 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.